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Q: Study online experiences?
I know a few people have studied online here in the Middle Kingdom
1) What has been your opinion and experience with your provider?
2) How have you handled China's internet 'issues'?
3) Has the degree or certification helped you professionally?
4) How did you balance work, life, study, and time zones?
-I'm thinking of getting the CompTIA Certs (you can take the exams in Philippines) so I can get an IT job when I go back to the states. My local community college has classes online.
11 years 35 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
That sounds like a good plan.
I'm getting a masters degree online from a state school in the US, I haven't finished yet just had my first round of finals. I feel like for the most part it is taken seriously, my boss thinks it's a great idea for one. My advice is make sure it's from a real school so it doesn't look like an online junk degree. If you can generate a surplus 10K RMB a month you can afford a masters from a perfectly decent school. I wouldn't cheap out on this, your time is valuable too.
Haven't had any internet issues, but im VPNd at all times on every device I would use. It seems like the student portal and blackboard platform work without it though.
Time zone wise it's fine...just have to be wary of deadlines. We effectively have 12 extra hours (a sunday night due assignment is due at noon on monday for us)
It's pretty easy to balance it with life etc...you just have to be disciplined about distractions. If you have a real fear of missing out you need to learn to tell people NO if they try to impose on your study time or keep you out all night.
You can probably make some time during the day in any downtime you have or around lunch or something. Maybe finish things up on the weekend.
It's really just down to whether you have the discipline to write off fun for the next couple years while you put yourself in a position to make some real money.
Best of luck, man. Keep us posted.
Seems a vpn will be 100% required, so I better set that up this february when I go back to the states...Astril seems to be very popular and professional...thought?
expatlife26:
I'm sure astril is fine, right now I have strong vpn and 12vpn and both of those perform acceptably.
Listen I think this is a really good move. You might wanna check out University of Maryland...they have some good online masters programs including IT about 20K USD all in.
Figure that 20K over 2 years...comes to 5K RMB per month. Tough it out for 2 years you got yourself a solid degree.
I did one degree online already, and now finished all coursework for the second degree. No issues (other than needing to keep an eye on deadlines - you don't have a lecturer reminding you all the time!).
Coursework is fairly easy, but I've found that trying to sort out the research has been annoying, as I haven't had the face to face to just chat about it like I would back at home.
Also, watch the number of subjects you're doing... probably nothing more than you'd consider back home, but doing it online is basically the same as doing it at home... except you have to do your library searches all online, and they may not have the required readings for you (or a particular chapter/article etc) ready to go. If you were going to the uni, you could just walk in, photocopy, and go. This disadvantage can really stuff you up!
I don't think I've ever needed a VPN for any of my online coursework...
Hotwater:
What subjects did you study & through which universities? I've been tempted for a while to study for a degree as China gets more strict on its work permit requirements (I'm an Engineer with technical college qualifications but >25 years experience).
Shining_brow:
First was a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, from Monash University.
Current is Master of Education (TESOL) from University of New England (apparently Australia's best uni for online education...!)
The M.Ed. has a teaching component, which was organised through where I worked. Just needed a relevantly quaifiied supervisor to oversee lesson planning, actual teaching, and follow-up. I didn't have to do something else, cos I have a CELTA, and I think if I had a DELTA I wouldn't have needed to do that teaching prac either.
During the first degree, I also had a to do a small-scale research project (very simple, and only about 4000 words, I think...)
Otherwise, all theoretical. So, easy to do online.
Hotwater:
Thanks for the feedback. I'd be looking for non-Education/Language degrees but will check out those 2 anyway to see what other online courses they offer.
You can also search torrents for A+ teaching videos
